


Through the Years

by writingonpostcards



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Flashbacks, Fluff, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 05:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17739686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingonpostcards/pseuds/writingonpostcards
Summary: Jack, Bitty and Kent spend a night reading through an article about their life.It’s not the future Jack thought he’d have, not when he first met Kent, not when he first met Bitty, not four years ago when they were all finally in the league together. Reading the article reminds him how far they’ve come.





	Through the Years

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilverDancers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverDancers/gifts).



> Title from 'Today I Am A Daisy', by Deborah Conway  
>  _You will come fly with me_  
>  _We will play leap frog through the years_  
>  _And life will be elegant_  
>  _We can chase away the tears_
> 
> Written as part of the 2019 Bitty's Valentines exchange for aceinhyperspace who requested "fluff, nhl au, enemies (to friends) to lovers" - I think I've ticked them all off!

Kent laughs a belly laugh. “To be fair, you did hate me.”

“I did not,” Bitty refutes, cheeks turning red. Though that could be the wine.

Jack’s eyebrows lift but he doesn’t say anything.

“I didn’t!” Bitty repeats, then he gets a wicked glint in his eyes and says, “I just sometimes imagined you getting seriously injured and cut from your team.”

Kent launches himself at Bitty to faux-tackle him. Thankfully, Jack’s quick reflexes protect his laptop from crashing to the floor. He moves away from the couch they’re play-wrestling on and stands on the other side of the coffee table away from the flailing limbs.

 _“Yet even this rivalry had nothing on the years of ingrained tension between previous line mates, Parson and Zimmermann,_ ” Jack continues reading the article.

Kent's face is pressed into Bitty's side but Jack catches the mumbled, “They probably wrote that because you never smiled at me during our face-offs.”

“You never smiled at me either, bud,” he tells Kent.

Kent digs his fingers into Bitty's side and is released. “Oh yeah?” He stands and straightens his t-shirt. “What do you call _this_.” Kent jumps over the coffee table to get up in Jack’s face and pull his face-off expression.

“It’s a smirk.” Jack tells him.

“Bitty?” Kent looks for support elsewhere.

“Sorry, hun.” Bitty fixes his hair on the couch. “I’m with Jack on this one.”

Kent pouts and spins the laptop around in Jack’s hand.

 _“The pair were first…_ Okay, blah, blah, blah, we know this part.” Kent scrolls down the article with a finger. “Blah, blah, blah—Oh. Here we go.”

Kent takes the laptop from Jack and clears his throat. _“However, if the hockey fans of the world thought that theirs was the rivalry of this decade, they were in for a shock when the Falconers added Eric “Bitty” Bittle to their roster. Suddenly the apathetic dismissals of Zimmermann seemed genial. Put Bittle against Kent and the ice seemed warm.”_

Jack laughs at that and Bitty groans. “Why is there always an ice related pun in these articles?” Bitty laments.

“I like them,” Jack says.

“That’s because your dad humour came in early,” Bitty tells him with perfect derision.

Kent laughs so hard that Jack takes the laptop back off him and sits down beside Bitty. Jack looks between the two of them, Bitty still despairing over the pun, and Kent wiping his eyes as he starts crying with laughter. It’s not the future Jack thought he’d have, not when he first met Kent, not when he first met Bitty, not four years ago when they were all finally in the league together. Reading the article reminds him how far they’ve come.

 

 

**~FOUR YEARS AGO~**

Jack pulls Bitty aside before the match. “You okay there, bud. You seem a little…wound-up.”

“I’m fine.” Jack watches Bitty’s hand clench tightly around his hockey stick.

“Okay.” Jack lets it go, even though he knows Bitty is lying. There isn’t time now to get into it. The Aces are waiting for them on the ice.

Jack takes an embarrassingly long time to figure it out, and in fact, he doesn’t even get there by himself.

Kent skates past him before second interval and hisses, “What’s the new guy got against me?”

Jack watches Bitty in the next play as he pulls a spinorama around Kent and whisks the puck away. It’s not skills, it’s showmanship. Like Bitty’s trying to embarrass Kent.

Jack spies Kent and swings past him, speaking quickly so it’s not obvious. “He knows about our history.”

Kent has to wait until the next pause in play to respond.

“I apologised for that,” Kent speaks angrily. “We both did.”

“I didn’t think I needed to let Bits know that.”

“Well, could ya?” Kent demands, starting to skate away. “He’s being a fucking menace to me.”

Jack doesn’t get a chance to say anything during the game. He makes sure Bitty doesn’t get picked for post-game interviews but by the time he himself has finished, Bitty’s gone from the locker-room. His stuff is still in his nook though, so Jack goes looking. He can’t be far, and Jack has a suspicion he knows which direction Bitty would have gone in.

The two blond heads are easy to spot, and their voices carry in the empty corridor.

“You tweeted me?” Jack can easily picture the ice in Bitty's eyes at that tone.

Kent shrugs and Jack can see Bitty’s hackles rise. “Knew you’d see it. I’ve got something to say to you.”

Jack starts to jog, heart pounding.

Bitty lifts his chin. “Why should I bother hearing it? I’ve got a win to celebrate.”

“You should bother because you played almost as dirty as me out there.”

Eric rolls his eyes. “Hypocritical remarks. Great. I’m leaving.”

Kent reaches out to grab Eric but Jack reaches them in time and puts his body in the middle of them.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Bitty smiles brittlely. “We’re leaving.”

Jack looks from Bitty to Kent.

“Kent, you should say what it is you wanted to.” He doesn’t want this getting into Bitty’s head again at their next game.

Bitty’s jaw slackens. “You’re on _his_ side? That’s the guy who can push you into an anxiety spiral in three sentences! Whose ego is so big that—"

“Woah. Hey, Bits,” Jack interrupts, seeing the curling of Kent’s fists. “We’ve talked about that. It’s in the past. We’ve both apologised to each other.”

Jack keeps his eyes on Bitty, watching his expression thaw ever so slightly.

“Right. Fine. Okay.” Bitty relents for the moment, though Jack knows they’ll be talking about it later. Bitty presses his lips together in a firm line and looks Kent up and down, unimpressed. “I still think you’re a dick,” he tells Kent before stalking back to the locker rooms.

“Back atcha,” Kent shouts to Bitty’s back.

 

 

**~PRESENT DAY~**

“I'm going to the kitchen,” Bitty announces, picking up the empty bottle of wine. “Does anyone want anything?”

Jack shakes his head. “I'm good, bud.”

“Is there more of your hazelnut ice cream?” Kent asks.

“Think so,” Bitty tells Kent. “I'll bring the tub if there is.”

“Love you,” Kent replies, stopping Bitty en route to the kitchen to give him a kiss.

“Love watching him leave,” Kent says to Jack, stealing Bitty's old spot on the couch. Jack agrees wholeheartedly but flicks Kent's ear anyway.

“Ouch,” Kent complains.

Jack smiles at Kent so he knows it's in jest when he says, “Why are you always so crass.”

“You bring it out in me. You're both too hot for my own good.” Kent licks an exaggerated line up Jack's neck so Jack pulls his hair in retaliation.

Bitty re-enters and avoids the ensuing tussle by sitting on the opposite armrest of the couch. “Well, at least I know you didn't read ahead without me,” he interrupts after a few moments.

He takes a scoop from the tub of ice cream in his lap and passes it to Jack.

“Any bets on what the closing paragraph is going to be?” Jack asks. It's a running game for them to predict the path of these articles.

Bitty hums. “I'm thinking something about trade rumours—reuniting the Parson Zimmermann dream team.”

“Good one. How much are we betting?” Jack asks, passing the tub across to Kent, who grabs at it eagerly.

“Ten dollars?”

“Mh. Ten tubs of this ice cream,” Kent says with his mouth full.

“Declined,” Bitty says. “Even if I give you my recipe and watch you cook, it’ll somehow turn out wrong.”

Kent pokes out an ice cream-covered tongue and Jack uses the distraction to steal the tub back.

“Winner gets to choose the theme for our Halloween party this year?” Jack suggests.

“Ooh. I like that one even better actually. I'm in.” Kent holds his spoon aloft. “I'm gonna go with…” He twirls the spoon as he thinks before landing it on Jack's shoulder. “I bet they talk about the Stanley Cup in a way that implies if one of our teams wins it'll prove LGBT-plus players are proficient.”

“Kinda specific,” Jack comments, tipping the tub so Kent can access it. “You’re sure you wanna go with that?”

“No, no. Let him make the weird and specific bet,” Bitty argues. “It's funnier that way. Plus they're actually right half the time.”

 

 

**~THREE YEARS AGO~**

Bitty, stretched out on the couch with phone in hand, laughs. It's the groan that follows it that gets Jack's attention.

“You good?”

Bitty groans again. “I'm annoyed. I was going through Kent's Instagram for his cat and it's hilarious.”

“And that's annoying to you?”

“No. Yes. Probably.” Bitty drops the phone onto his chest and digs his hands into his eyes. “Should it be?”

Jack shuts his book properly and sits on the coffee table so he’s up near Bitty's head.

“You're always number one in my book.”

Bitty drops his hands and smiles at Jack.

“I'm gonna follow him,” he declares.

“Uh…” is all Jack gets out before Bitty hits the follow button.

“And fuck it, his personal one too.”

Jack manages a full, “Are you sure?” this time at least. Bitty still trash talks Kent when they face each other. He doesn't think this will go well.

Jack's worry turns out to be unfounded.

“I really wish you'd bond over something that isn't my clothes,” Jack pleads, watching Kent and Bitty in stitches on the couch.

“But Jack. Jack. Look.” Bitty holds his phone up for Jack to see. His laughter shakes it so much it's tricky to even pick what outfit they're laughing over this time. _“Your shoes.”_

“Your shoes,” Kent repeats. “Bright yellow.”

“Yellow,” Bitty echoes, nodding sagely in the way only tipsy people can get away with. “And your t-shirt is _huge_.”

“So huge,” Kent gasps, wiping tears from his eyes. “I bet you twenty bucks Bitty and I could fit in it. Like together. At the same time.”

Jack doesn't think his clothes are that big. He laughs. “Deal. Twenty it is.”

Bitty and Kent share a look and then Jack's racing them down the corridor, trying to stop Bitty from showing Kent their closet.

Kent and Bitty strongarm him into giving them both twenty.

 

 

**~PRESENT DAY~**

“How long is this article, anyway?” Kent asks when Jack pauses between paragraphs.  “They aren’t even up to us coming out yet.”

“I was out before getting drafted,” Bitty points out, licking his spoon clean of the last of the ice cream.

Kent leans over the back of the couch from where he's been pacing and stretches a hand over Jack’s shoulder to reach for the laptop

Jack holds the laptop out away from Kent’s reach.

“Come on. I just wanna see.”

“I’ll lose my place.”

“I’ll find it for you again.”

“And then you’ll—"

“It’s 3000 words,” Bitty interrupts their argument. He holds up his phone at their twin looks. “I googled it.”

Jack scrolls down a little anyway, to appease Kent, then hands the laptop over his shoulder to him. He gets a quick kiss on the cheek for his troubles.

_“On National Coming Out Day 2020, Bittle, Parse and Zimmermann came out on social media—”_

“Already out,” Bitty repeats.

_“—their announcements prompting several other current and retired players to join them over the following months. Though they say they were not together at the time, several months later the trio was spotted apartment hunting by fans, leading to speculation—later confirmed by the players themselves—that they were in a relationship. One year on and—”_

Kent stops reading and scoffs. “This is bullshit.” He points a finger at the laptop. Bitty and Jack have to turn on the couch to see. “They didn’t even talk about the parade!”

“Look on the bright side,” Jack says, “at least they're not using that ‘we fell in love over FaceTime’ quote.”

“I stand by that,” Kent claims. Jack believes him, he just likes bringing it up.

“I remember when you said it,” Bitty says, holding his arm out over the back of the sofa to grab Kent's free hand. “I thought it was very sweet.”

“See, Bitty likes it.” Jack knows Kent's teasing from the easy smile on his face but he plays along.

“I didn't say it wasn't sweet,” Jack points out. ‘I just meant, it certainly wasn't the full story.”

“Well that one wasn't appropriate for mass media,” Kent replies.

“No!” Bitty says with overdone shock, hand pressed to his chest. “Spending a long weekend with us and bottling up your supposedly unrequited feelings only to confess those feelings over FaceTime the second you flew into McCarran, then hop on another plane straight back to us? That's not appropriate?”

“I meant more the stuff that happened after.”

Jack rolls his eyes. “Always so crass.”

“That wasn't crass, that was suggestive.”

“Pee-can, pe-cahn,” Jack replies.

Kent sticks his tongue out.

“We're glad you did it,” Bitty says, pulling on their still linked hands to kiss him.

Kent returns to the article, making his way slowly around the couch.

“They’ve put in that blurry phone pic again,” he sighs. “Why do people always use that one? We weren't even together yet.”

“Jack’s ass in those jeans,” Bitty says at the same time Jack says, “Bitty’s hand in your hair.”

Jack waits for the inevitable follow-up. He catches Bitty’s eyes and knows he’s doing the same.

 _Three_ , Bitty mouths.

 _Two_ , Jack mouths back, grinning.

_One._

“But my eyes are shut!” Kent complains with his usual dramatic flair.

Jack and Bitty start laughing.

“What? Guys, what?” Kent asks sulkily.

Bitty gasps. “You say that every time.”

“Well my eyes are shut every time,” Kent replies, defensive.

“At least it’s not the picture from your birthday last year,” Jack points out.

Bitty shudders beside him. “Amen.”

 

 

**~ONE YEAR AGO~**

The flash from the camera is blinding.

“Take the flash off,” Jack shouts over the groans of people who’ve been half-blinded.

“Yeah, take it off.” The way Kent’s hands are snaking into the waistband of his pants makes it clear he’s not talking about the camera flash.

“Sorry!” Bitty says, adjusting the setting. “Okay, final one y’all.”

Bitty starts the self-timer then dashes to squeeze himself into the group. He jumps on Jack’s back and almost topples them both over by throwing an arm to wrap around Kent’s shoulders.

After the camera clicks, Bitty pulls them both by the hand over to the camera. He brings up the final photo and zooms in on the three of them.

“Dear lord.” Bitty flips the camera so they can see.

“Holy shit,” Jack exclaims.

Kent grabs the camera and zooms in even more, laughing. “I _love_ this photo. This is the best birthday photo _ever_. I’m gonna print it and frame it _and_ keep a copy in my wallet.”

“Isn’t it a litte, uh, N-S-F-W?” Jack can’t help but say.

Bitty groans. “Jack, please don’t tell me you just—”

He grins and confirms Bitty’s fears. “Not safe for wallet.”

Bitty headbuts Jack’s chest. The blond hairs tickle his skin and he’s pretty sure the body paint is going to rub off onto Bitty’s forehead. “No! That’s a fine. I’m calling it. Give me a kiss to make up for it. Right now.”

Jack happily obliges.

“You owe me one too,” Kent tells Jack, already leaning in for it. “Oh my god, that pun was _bad_.”

Kent laughs into Jack’s mouth as he kisses him, and Jack tries hard to shut him up with his tongue. It’s not that effective.

 

 

**~PRESENT DAY~**

“Oh. Is that it?” Kent sounds disappointed to have finished the article, for all his ribbing earlier. “No one guessed the ending then. Damn.”

Jack reaches over and closes the internet window before Kent hits the comments section. They’ve learnt to leave that be. It’s always the negative ones that stick with you.

Kent puts the laptop on the coffee table then twists on the couch so he can lean against the armrest and stretch his legs out over Jack’s lap.

“Not the best, not the worst,” Bitty remarks from Jack’s other side.

“There wasn’t anything new in it, at least,” Jack comments.

“Yeah, because we’re like the boring married people in the NHL now.” Kent manages to sound sad and relieved at once.

“Kenny, we’re neither of those things,” Jack says, rubbing a palm along Kent’s leg.

“Soon though,” Bitty says, smiling, stretching his left hand across to rest over Jack’s on Kent’s leg. The diamond flecks in the gold band catch the light. “I’m looking forward to a boring married life with you two.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I try to respond to all comments :)
> 
> And shout out to my amazing, dependable, beautiful, fantastic beta-reader (and co-mod of this event with me!!!) [Silvia](http://notenoughgatorade.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Find more of my fics on [tumblr](http://17piesinseptember.tumblr.com/tagged/mine)


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